Captain Ricky Ponting believes a fully fit Brett Lee might provide the spark needed to ignite the visitors' so far forgettable Ashes tour, which hit another low spot yesterday (AEST), this time against a ruthless England.
Ponting's pace bowlers - with the exception of Glenn McGrath - were again rendered impotent by the brutal late-innings hitting of England's newest hero, Kevin Pietersen, whose memorable and unbeaten 91 led his team to a three-wicket win.
Australia remains without a point after its opening two matches of the tri-series, and risks the abject humiliation of being pipped by Bangladesh for a place in next month's final at Lord's.
Given the ease and regularity with which Pietersen dispatched the Australian seamers to - and over - the short boundaries at Bristol's County Ground, it's hardly surprising Ponting wants Lee back for Thursday's return bout in Durham.
Lee, Australia's most successful one-day bowler over the past 12 months, missed his team's back-to-back losses on the weekend because of a shoulder injury sustained in its equally dismal showing against county team Somerset last Wednesday.
With four consecutive losses in the 20-over and 50-over forms of the game, Ponting is desperate for the variety genuine speedster Lee brings to an attack which has shown alarming traces of staleness and sameness without him.
"There are similar paces about the attack at the moment," Ponting said of his line-up which yesterday boasted McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Michael Kasprowicz and all-rounder Shane Watson.
"I mean they are all slightly different (styles) but the paces are similar. So it would be nice to get someone like Brett back in the side.
"He was by far and away our best one-day bowler in New Zealand (in February) and he started off this tour looking in pretty good shape as well.
"He was very close to playing (yesterday), so I would be very surprised if he didn't play on Thursday."
Ponting said that although Andrew Symonds, suspended for the past two international games after a drunken night out in Cardiff before the opening fixture, would be available for Thursday's game, he was not an automatic selection.
Australia's inability to contain opposition batsmen has been exposed over the past fortnight as the once-mighty attack failed to defend a huge total (342) against Somerset and reasonable ones (249 and 252) against Bangladesh and England.
Only the ever-reliable McGrath has been able to regularly hit the required one-day target of yorker-length balls in the late overs, and the steady diet of full-tosses and half-volleys sent down by Kasprowicz, Gillespie and Watson have been fodder for rival batsmen.
In their outings over the past seven days, Kasprowicz has conceded 7.5 runs an over in four matches, Gillespie 6.78 from three and Watson 6.33 from two. The ferocity of Pietersen's assault at the small Bristol ground made it glaringly obvious a change must be made before Australia's next game against England at the vastly more spacious Riverside stadium at Chester-Le-Street. England began the final 10 overs of yesterday's game requiring 76 runs from 60 balls with just four wickets in hand. At that point, it seemed a victory would prove a timely salve for Australia's otherwise catastrophic weekend.
But the tall, extroverted Englishman aimed a series of stunning blows and lifted his score from 30 to 87 in 24 balls.
He took 18 off Kasprowicz's ninth over and then bludgeoned two fours and a six from a Gillespie over to all but seal England's win.
"I am not surprised that we were hit around because we are trying to bowl a certain way and not executing that well enough," Ponting said.
"To someone like Pietersen and big powerful strikers of the ball, if you are not getting the ball in exactly the right area then you can be a sitting duck, and that's what happened a few times (yesterday).
"We are getting closer, we are not anywhere near our absolute best but we are getting closer and we made some good steps forward (yesterday)."
Unfortunately, Ponting himself took a small step back in his search for runs on this tour, trapped in front first ball from lanky England quick Steve Harmison.
Ponting has managed just one decent hit for the tour to date, in last Wednesday's match against Somerset when he retired on 80, and over the weekend was twice trapped in front while walking across his stumps.
"I have been out in similar way in both games, so I have to go and have a look at that and do some work on that," Ponting said.
- ANDREW RAMSEY